Campaign finance data indicates Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has seen little political boost from her RICO prosecution of former President Donald Trump and 14 other co-defendants over allegations they attempted to interfere in the state’s 2020 presidential election. Between August 15, 2023, and the end of this past January, Willis raised just $84,758 — well below the over $130,000 she raised in July of 2022 alone. The Fulton County District Attorney appears to have struggled to pull in cash in the months after she indicted the former President, having raised $326,042 since May of 2022.
Willis’s campaign also saw a drop in contributors following the RICO indictments. Over July and August of 2022, Willis received over 600 contributions, more than double what she’s received since the indictments. In addition to the lackluster fundraising and donor dropoff, the District Attorney‘s re-election campaign has increasingly relied on out-of-state money. Georgia campaign finance data shows that about 70 percent of her donors are located outside the state and hail from liberal locales like California, Maryland, and New York.
The weaker-than-expected fundraising and her controversial prosecution of former President Trump have resulted in Willis drawing a Democrat primary challenger in her bid for re-election this fall. Christian Wise Smith — a former Fulton County prosecutor — previously challenged Willis in the 2020 Democratic primary, coming in third place with 22 percent of the vote. He also ran in the 2022 Democrat primary for Attorney General, placing in second — again with 22 percent of the vote.
The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Courtney Kramer in November’s general election. Kramer — formerly an executive with True the Vote — previously served as a litigation consultant on former President Trump‘s 2020 re-election campaign and as special counsel for the Georgia Republican Party.